I didn’t expect to love Dyson’s PencilVac Fluffycones – but I did

As The Verge’s resident robot vacuum reviewer, I don’t person a batch of clip (or space) successful my life for instrumentality vacs, and frankly, the ones I person utilized person mostly disappointed me. Top-heavy, bulky, ever getting clogged aliases moving retired of artillery — they’re so… manual. But past I met PencilVac Fluffycones, Dyson’s caller $599 cordless instrumentality vacuum, and it was emotion astatine first lift.

The sanction PencilVac Fluffycones perfectly describes this delightfully overengineered broom. If much vacuums had specified whimsical names, my life would beryllium overmuch fuller. It’s very bladed and light, for illustration a pencil, and it has fluffy, cone-shaped rollers that glide crossed floors arsenic if they’re flying.

While I do not urge buying this arsenic a instrumentality to cleanable your full location (it doesn’t cleanable carpets!), pinch its slim creation and easy maneuverability, I’ve recovered it to beryllium a awesome complement to a robot vacuum. The robot tin do the difficult activity of vacuuming and mopping your floors, and this lightweight machine, which sits prettily successful a magnetic charging dock, tin beryllium connected manus for touch-ups and erstwhile it’s clip to tackle stairs and baseboards.

Touted by Dyson arsenic “the world’s slimmest vacuum cleaner,” the PencilVac fits each its components into its 1.5-inch-diameter handle, which runs the magnitude of the vacuum. Packed successful present are the electronics, the battery, the dustbin, and a mini 28mm-diameter centrifugal that spins astatine 140,000 RPM to make 55 aerial watts of suction.

This is the aforesaid centrifugal arsenic successful Dyson’s Supersonic R hairsbreadth dryer, and the grip is the aforesaid width around, truthful you’re fundamentally utilizing a reverse hairsbreadth dryer to cleanable your floors.

Impressively, the PencilVac weighs little than 4 pounds and, mixed pinch its maneuverability enabled by 4 caster rollers that let it to pivot successful aggregate directions, it’s arsenic easy to grip arsenic a broom aliases Swiffer. Even my husband, who conscionable had awesome enarthrosis surgery, was capable to usage it to cleanable the room level pinch nary issues.

The PencilVac’s different unsocial trading constituent is its fluffycones — 4 fluffy, cone-shaped roller bars successful the vacuum’s head. The thought is that agelong hairsbreadth should move down the 4 cones and retired from the separator of the vacuum, past beryllium sucked up pinch a swipe. In practice, this worked reasonably well, unless the aforementioned bundle of hairsbreadth sewage excessively heavy — successful which case, it couldn’t ever suck it up.

While the PencilVac looks and moves for illustration a broom, it besides benignant of vacuums for illustration one. Its suction powerfulness is half that of Dyson’s lowest-end cordless instrumentality vacuum, the V8. It does awesome connected dust, mini tufts of hair, and lightweight debris for illustration Cheerios and dried oatmeal. But springiness it thing thicker to tackle, and you’ll beryllium frustrated.

This is why it useful good arsenic an add-on to a robot vacuum that regularly sweeps and mops your floors. Judging by Dyson’s property images, it’s besides being marketed arsenic a stylish action for those who unrecorded successful immaculate apartments that are magically mostly spotless.

Unless you unrecorded successful 1 of those apartments, I don’t spot the PencilVac moving arsenic a superior vacuum for cleaning your house, particularly if you person immoderate carpets aliases rugs. But for speedy touch-ups and getting particulate bunnies disconnected stairs — 2 areas robot vacuums don’t really do (one not easily, and the different not astatine each … yet) — it’s a great, albeit expensive, solution.

Less cumbersome than immoderate instrumentality vac I’ve used, it is ace easy to usage connected stairs, and it was elemental to find a abstraction for its small, slim dock successful a room aliases bathroom, areas wherever you mightiness want a high-powered broom connected hand.

It’s much maneuverable than a instrumentality vac, pivoting smoothly to spell astir furnishings legs and lying wholly level to get nether sofas and beds.

For deeper cleaning, the PencilVac’s included crevice tool/dusting attachment did a bully occupation connected baseboards and windowsills, and could scope up to lights and cobwebby corners. It besides easy sewage into spaces robot vacuums can’t — for illustration the spread down the TV console.

I’ve only been utilizing it for a mates of days, but I quickly sewage utilized to the deficiency of a handle. It really is conscionable for illustration utilizing a broom.

The biggest problem is suction; it’s not a powerful vacuum, particularly compared to Dyson’s instrumentality vacs. It struggles pinch larger clumps of ungraded and thing bigger than a fluffy particulate bunny. As mentioned, it conscionable flat-out doesn’t activity connected carpet.

It besides only runs for 30 minutes connected debased and astir 20 minutes connected medium, which I recovered myself utilizing astir often. (There is simply a boost mode for immoderate other power.) All of which makes it awesome for a speedy touch-up, but not for a whole-house clean.

One different point to note: this is Dyson’s first instrumentality vacuum to link to the My Dyson app. This isn’t a plus, astatine slightest not yet. Functionally, it’s constricted to package updates and filter-cleaning alerts. It besides uses Bluetooth, truthful you person to beryllium adjacent the vacuum to update it, and the app kept insisting that I springiness it imperishable entree to my location for nary clear reason.

Between the constricted suction, short runtime, and inability to grip carpet, the PencilVac Fluffycones isn’t moreover pretending to beryllium a whole-home cleaner. If you’re looking for a due location cleaner successful this value range, Dyson’s V8 Absolute is simply a amended choice. It’s nether six pounds and has doubly the suction. While somewhat little maneuverable, it will prime up each the ungraded and cleanable your carpets, baseboards, and everything else.

But is it arsenic nosy arsenic the PencilVac? Not moreover close. The PencilVac is Dyson astatine its best: a wildly overengineered instrumentality that’s delightful to use, wholly unnecessary, but thing you’re astir apt going to really want anyway.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge